Lyrium has a bad history of having gameplay really, really not match up with lore. See the 'healing lyrium' of DA:O, specifically in the Anvil of the Void area. Healing lyrium in the Fade is one thing, where it's not really lyrium and you're not really touching it, but healing lyrium in the Anvil of the Void is clearly real, physical raw lyrium and instead of causing the horrible and harmful effects on humans/elves that it's supposed to, it heals. I vaguely recall a post admitting this was a gameplay mechanic that makes no sense lore-wise.
In DA:O, Lyrium is distinct and glows bluish-green and all uses the same model, in both the Fade and in the Anvil of the Void. It exists in no other areas of the game. In Awakenings, the piles of lyrium sand were purple. There were no lyrium veins in the game at all. In DA2, all lyrium that is labeled as such is red. Every vein of raw lyrium, corrupted lyrium, and refined lyrium in the game, whether it's in the deep roads or not, is a small grey mound with slight red glow coming from streaks within it.
When we enter the deep roads, we have gigantic glowing crystalline 'roots' growing all over the side-caverns. In the deep roads section before reaching the Primeval Thaig, these 'roots' are blue, and in the Primeval Thaig, they are red. Some people believe them to be lyrium. As far as I know, there is no actual indication that these things are lyrium at all - if they were, they would presumably be valuable? Someone would mention them? Something? They may be some other naturally ocurring luminescent crystal? Does anyone have any confirmation that these crystals and roots are actually lyrium?
In DA2, lyrium is again treated significantly differently in gameplay than in lore. The lore states that only dwarves (and perhaps tranquil?) can mine and handle raw lyrium safely, and that even surface dwarves lose their ability to do this. But we find deposits of lyrium throughout the Kirkwall area that are presumably being used by our suppliers to craft the things we order.
Then we have the idol itself: if red lyrium is some sort of highly unusual or perhaps even unique thing, that only exists within the Primeval Thaig, how is it that Hawke and Varric instantly recognize that the idol is made of lyrium, if it is made of some new and unique type of lyrium? Wouldn't there be a 'but...it's red...' line there somewhere? For that matter, why would Hawke reach out and grab it? Does she not know raw lyrium is deadly poison to humans even to the touch? Is she just being foolhardy in expecting to pass it off to Bartrand immediately without ill effects, rather than simply allowing Varric and Bartrand to be the ones to handle the thing? Or is this another case of what we see not quite matching up to how the lore says it's supposed to be?
At this point, I don't know if the conclusion that 'red lyrium' is distinct from normal lyrium is the right one to come to. I don't know if we should be speculating about the effects of 'red lyrium' at all, given that it seems entirely possible such a thing is not even meant to exist, story-wise.
If at all possible, it'd be nice to get some absolute confirmation on whether 'red lyrium' is actually intended to be distinct or not so we can direct our speculation correctly?
Edit: Removed a line which was incorrect, after having replayed that scene: Varric does make a comment stating "doesn't look like any kind of lyrium I've ever seen" in reference to the idol. Still no reference to the color, however. The idol may itself be a unique type of lyrium, or perhaps the result of a unique refinement process - or it may not even be lyrium at all, and that's just pure speculation by the characters.
Modifié par Koyasha, 14 avril 2011 - 04:26 .
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